#101

“Who’s outside?”

Just then, Kwon Ki-hyuk’s voice drifted from inside. Leaving behind a strong sense of déjà vu, Ho-jae stepped into the office. Upon spotting Shin Ho-jae, Kwon Ki-hyuk spoke with a lingering smile on his face.

“Ah, I guess the person I was told to wait for was Player Shin. Just wait a little longer.”

After saying that, Kwon Ki-hyuk disappeared through another door inside the vice president’s office. It seemed there was a separate private restroom.

Ho-jae walked slowly, scanning his surroundings. A very faint pheromone lingered in the office. It was such a minute amount that an ordinary trait-bearer wouldn’t even notice it.

The smell of burning rubber.

He remembered exactly where he had smelled this before. Before spending his first and last night with Jung-hyun, it was the pheromone scent that had been smeared on Jung-hyun’s cheek when they encountered each other at the stadium.

And he also remembered that that day was the day Kwon Ki-hyuk had visited the stadium. He had vaguely thought that the brothers must be close, since he overheard a front office employee mentioning that Ki-hyuk had come to see his brother’s work.

At the time, the reason he had lost his composure to that pheromone wasn’t simply because it was present.

It was because he felt an incredibly intense possessiveness within that pheromone. A scent of twisted obsession so strong it made him feel nauseous.

Back then, he hadn’t connected the pheromone on Jung-hyun with his older brother. Anyone else would have felt the same.

“…….”

Kwon Ki-hyuk was a recessive. One could tell just by looking at him. Much like how people can instinctively distinguish whether someone is a trait-bearer or a Beta. For someone like him to leave that much pheromone on Kwon Jung-hyun, there had to be direct contact.

Therefore, when Ho-jae had asked who had left the pheromone, Kwon Jung-hyun must have known he was referring to his brother.

But why did Jung-hyun have that expression? If Shin Yeon-jae had accidentally left pheromones on him, Jung-hyun surely would have recoiled in disgust, his face twisting.

Instead of being displeased, however, Jung-hyun had sighed like someone who had resigned themselves to it. As if he were used to it….

Lost in thought, Ho-jae cast a casual glance toward the bookshelf. His eyes caught a face-down picture frame. As if drawn by something, Ho-jae approached the frame.

Seeing that the ornaments on either side were standing upright, it seemed clear that the frame had been turned over intentionally. He had seen a picture frame placed this way elsewhere before.

On his father’s nightstand. There was always the same frame turned over there. A photo of his father roaring in a judo uniform. Every time he saw it, his heart would grow cold. It felt as though his father found it too painful to look at a moment he could never return to.

Click.

Ho-jae flipped the frame over to check the photo. It was a family photo with a somewhat heavy atmosphere. A young couple and a boy who looked to be around middle school age. The man in the couple bore a striking resemblance to Kwon Ki-hyuk.

Kwon Ki-hyuk and his son…? No, that couldn’t be. His son was only fifty days old.

Then was this a childhood family photo of Kwon Ki-hyuk?

If so, why was Jung-hyun not in it? If Ki-hyuk was in middle school, Jung-hyun should have been in elementary school.

That wasn’t the only strange thing. Looking closer, the woman’s face in the couple didn’t seem to be the mother of the Jung-hyun he knew.

“So, what did you say your business was?”

At the sound of Kwon Ki-hyuk’s voice coming from the restroom, Ho-jae quickly returned the frame to its original position. Ho-jae sat down before he returned, and Kwon Ki-hyuk sat on the sofa without any particular sign of suspicion.

Ho-jae reminded himself once more of the purpose of his visit.

“…Tomorrow is the playoff deciding match, but the equipment for seven players, including myself, is stuck at some unknown airport. I was wondering if you could help us recover the equipment.”

“Equipment? Can’t you just buy new ones?”

“…As I mentioned earlier, every single piece of equipment is broken in to fit each player’s individual body. Furthermore, goalie protectors cannot be obtained on short notice.”

“Hmm.”

“If our advancement to the playoffs is confirmed tomorrow, we will have to compete against the strongest teams until the finals. We cannot borrow someone else’s gear for such a match, Vice President.”

“I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do for you.”

Kwon Ki-hyuk concluded simply, taking out a cigarette.

“That’s why you shouldn’t have flown with such a cheap airline.”

“…….”

His tone implied that the loss of equipment was the players’ fault. He surely knew that using a Russian low-cost carrier was entirely due to the front office’s instructions to reduce the club’s operating expenses.

Feeling somewhat deflated, Ho-jae looked at his face. Their eyes met and Ki-hyuk smiled thinly, but even a fool could tell that he found this matter tedious.

His fists naturally tightened on his lap. He hadn’t waited outside for three hours the day before a match just to hear words like these.

“……If it had been CEO Jung-hyun, he would have found a way to solve it.”

Shin Ho-jae finally spat out the words that had been circling in his head all day.

“Vice President, are you truly interested in ice hockey?”

At Shin Ho-jae’s remark, Kwon Ki-hyuk arched an eyebrow.

“Did you pursue the acquisition because you were truly interested in our team?”

A low chuckle escaped Ki-hyuk’s lips.

“My, it seems I’ve disappointed Player Shin.”

Kwon Ki-hyuk sat back leisurely and crossed his legs. Then, he lit the cigarette in his mouth.

“It’s true that I have a connection with Player Shin, but to me, the Blue Wolves are just one of many businesses. It seems Jung-hyun put quite a bit of effort into it, though….”

Kwon Ki-hyuk looked at Shin Ho-jae while exhaling white smoke.

“I’ve been wondering for a while. Do you happen to have some special relationship with my brother?”

“…….”

“The way Jung-hyun took exceptional care of the club, and the fact that Player Shin cried a while ago. On that day, Player Shin said he cried because he thought of his late father, but.”

Kwon Ki-hyuk was looking at Shin Ho-jae with a peculiar expression.

“I just wondered why you would suddenly cry like that.”

He was talking about what had happened at the MJ Hotel banquet hall a while ago. When Ki-hyuk had asked for the reason that day, Ho-jae had brought up his father. He had quickly made up an excuse, thinking it would look strange to burst into tears out of nowhere. Why was he bringing it up again now? A reflexive sense of vigilance rose within him.

“…You know that it hasn’t been long since my father passed away.”

“Ah, that’s right.”

“And as for a special relationship, you’re talking nonsense. What relationship could there be between a club owner and a player other than that?”

As he answered, Ho-jae clenched his fist tightly, just enough so that Kwon Ki-hyuk couldn’t see.

The fact that he and Jung-hyun had been in a sponsor relationship, and the fact that he still had feelings for Jung-hyun. Either of those would be an obstacle to Ki-hyuk’s marriage.

That must be why Jung-hyun had been desperate not to be seen with him. Thinking back to that moment, he felt as if a part of his chest was burning black again.

“And here I thought it was something more than that.”

Kwon Ki-hyuk stared intently at Shin Ho-jae’s face and inhaled from the filter.

“The day I went to watch a game, I smelled a pheromone on my brother, and I wondered if it might have been Player Shin’s pheromone.”

“…….”

“Was it a deep ocean scent?”

Shin Ho-jae looked at Kwon Ki-hyuk with eyes that had sunk into darkness.

Shin Ho-jae tended to trust his instincts and intuition. Especially when holding a hockey stick or when it came to matters regarding Jung-hyun.

Ever since he smelled Ki-hyuk’s pheromones earlier, he had felt a strong sense of dissonance from him. He didn’t know what it was about. However, one thing was certain: he had a strong intuition that he must not let the truth be discovered here.

“It was likely my pheromone.”

Ho-jae admitted in a flat tone.

“That day was during my rut. As you know, Vice President, one becomes exceptionally sensitive to other pheromones during a rut.”

“That’s true.”

Kwon Ki-hyuk inhaled his cigarette, his eyes gleaming like someone listening to an interesting story.

“Before the second period started, I happened to run into CEO Jung-hyun in the hallway….”

After saying that much, Shin Ho-jae looked straight into Kwon Ki-hyuk’s face.

“There was a disgusting pheromone smeared on his face. …A recessive pheromone that smelled like burning rubber covered up with cheap perfume.”

“…….”

The smile slowly vanished from Ki-hyuk’s face.

“Since you are also a fine Alpha, you’ll understand, right? That an Alpha in rut cannot help but react instinctively to cheap pheromones.”

As he spoke, Shin Ho-jae smiled. Just as Kwon Jung-hyun did, pulling up the corners of his mouth without his eyes smiling.

“To think you’d imagine some kind of relationship between me and a Beta man over something like that…. It’s almost disgusting.”

Saying things he didn’t mean was like poison to him, but strangely, spitting these words out wasn’t difficult. Perhaps it was because it was a lie he had already told Jung-hyun. That fact pressed down painfully on his heart.

Kwon Ki-hyuk slowly exhaled the smoke he had been holding and scrutinized Shin Ho-jae’s face.

Then, as if deciding there was no lie in Shin Ho-jae’s expression, he laughed lightly.

“If that’s the case, I understand. It was a needless misunderstanding.”

“I’m glad the misunderstanding is cleared up.”

Shin Ho-jae replied with a composed face.

* * *

“It’s very weak, but it’s definitely beating. Can you feel it?”

At the doctor’s words, Jung-hyun listened intently. Soon, a sound like a drum beating underwater—thump-thump, thump-thump—reached his ears.

“The fetus is a bit small compared to others at the same week, but the heart is very healthy and beating fast.”

Just before visiting the hospital for the surgery, he had impulsively sought out a different hospital.

He didn’t know why he had done it himself. It was simply a sudden decision, literally.

“By the way, you said you manifested as an Omega not long ago, right?”

“Ah, yes.”

“Hmm….”

The doctor fell into a long silence, carefully examining the chart and various figures. His mouth felt strangely dry, so Jung-hyun spoke first.

“What is it? Is there a problem?”

“The environment in the womb isn’t yet equipped enough for the fetus to grow sufficiently. To put it simply, it’s like a baby was born into a temporary house.”

“…….”

“Even now, the size of the fetus is smaller than usual for this gestational age. It seems to be because the uterine environment where nutrients can be properly absorbed has not been established.”

She frowned, her eyebrows forming an inverted ‘V’ as if she felt great pity. After a long while, she spoke cautiously.

“It’s unfortunate, but… in cases like this, growth within the uterus is difficult, and there is a high probability that it will eventually end in a miscarriage.”

102 – PUCK DROP